Daily Archives: May 24, 2025

May 24, 2025

John 20:19-31 • April 27, 2025 • Disciple Lutheran Parish, Stanley, Ross, Palermo, ND

By Bishop Craig Schweitzer

Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our risen Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

Disciple Lutheran Parish and the congregations of Faith, Bethlehem, and Knife River, thank you for the invitation to be with you this weekend. I’m so very grateful for your elected leadership, your Synod Authorized Ministers, and everyone who calls a congregation of this parish their faith home.

You are a gift for which I am very grateful.

God’s work through the Western North Dakota synod is better and stronger because of you.

Thank you for the many ways you support the mission and ministry of this church – your prayer, your hands, feet, voices; and, your financial gifts. Thank you.

Let’s see if you’re still with me this morning Lutherans…

I say…

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

You say…

Christ is risen indeed!

Good. How about…

The Lord be with you. And also with you.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. And also with you.

Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer.

Go in peace to serve the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Fantastic. You know what. Since this is my first visit to this brand new parish, I think we should take a family photo.

Okay, let’s try one more Lutheran call and response. I think this one is the most difficult.

Are you ready for it?

The peace of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you all. And also with you.

Thank you and you are awesome. And yes, I did in fact say that the last one was the most difficult one. More on that in a minute.

One of the great blessings of this call serving as your bishop is that I get to be in a different congregation of our church nearly every Sunday of the year. And one of the things I always like to do when I’m in congregations of our synod is to bring greetings of peace to you from your brothers and sisters in Christ across the western North Dakota Synod – nearly 160 congregations serving the western two-thirds of our great state.

I bring greetings of peace to you from your brothers and sisters in Christ across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – about 8,500 congregations serving across the United States and the Caribbean.

And I bring greetings of peace to you from your brothers and sisters in Christ who are part of the Lutheran World Federation or LWF. LWF connects 149 Lutheran denominations together – of which the ELCA is the only representative of from the United States. It’s about 77 million children of God serving in 99 different countries around the world in Christ’s name. LWF is a global mission and ministry that began shortly after World War II that was formed to help rebuild churches and communities impacted by the evil of war.

Through relationships centered in Christ’s peace like our synod, our denomination, and global ministries like LWF, Lutheran Christians serve on every continent on Earth.

In our gospel reading today from Saint John, the disciples are locked in a room in fear.

Jesus comes to them and says, “Peace be with you.”

And he doesn’t just say this once, but three times.

“Peace be with you.”

Jesus also says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

And if that wasn’t enough, Jesus also challenges his followers – and you and me today – with a seemingly impossible task, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Holy cow.

If living in peace, being sent by God into the world to do God’s work, and forgiving others who have sinned against me are what it means to follow the risen savior Jesus, I can kind of understand why those first disciples were locked in a room somewhere and were afraid. I’d be afraid too.

And still today, you and I think Jesus has some nerve, coming to us in peace.

What is he thinking!?!

Doesn’t he know that one of the fastest growing and most profitable industries in the modern world is security. National security. Personal security. Home security. Financial security. Internet security.

Peace? Jesus, come on.

You and I invest aggressively and abundantly in security.

In so many ways, it’s an effort to contain the chaos of the world around us and lock ourselves in rooms that we think give us complete control and safety.

But…Peace?

I mean, isn’t it just easier for us to move through life – and even through our life of faith – locked behind doors that we build with our own individual version of faith, walls of security that keep people who are different from us out of our life?

Walls of security that protect us from embracing the peace that is a relationship with the savior of the world Jesus Christ.

At least that will give us some sense of peace. Right?

We just need to lock ourselves in a room.

Build another wall of security.

Then we’ll find peace.

In the gospel story before us, not just today, but every time we enter into the gospel story of the savior of the world, the risen Jesus, we see Jesus teaching us a better way forward.

A better way, for those of us who claim to be his followers. that begins and ends with peace.

Now, let’s be real here. I’m not going to take down the security systems on my computer and trust that the wickedness of computer hackers will leave me alone because they know I follow Jesus.

And I’m not going to get rid of the home security system that I have because I trust that people with evil intentions will leave my house alone because they see the cross in my front yard, so they have to know I’m a Jesus follower.

But, Jesus, greeting me with peace does give me pause…to reflect on how I am greeting others and how I’m in relationship with others, even if I don’t like them or agree with them.

Jesus is challenging you and me to live out all of our relationships – at work, at play, at the grocery store – with the peace of the risen Christ at our center.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, let’s be honest.

That’s easier said than done.

Here’s where I’m hoping you and I can focus our attention today, and really, in every part of our life together in Christ.

Because, I think it’s often the one facet of following Jesus that we frankly don’t take all that seriously.

And let’s be honest with each other this morning, the broken world in which we live, desperately needs us to take it more seriously.

Remember, Jesus offers the greeting, “Peace be with you,” three times in today’s gospel reading. On one level, this was a common greeting in Jesus’ day. Similar to us saying “hello” or “what’s up” to someone today.

But I think Jesus offers something different, especially after the resurrection, with this greeting of peace.

I think his greeting, post-resurrection, is much more significant that simply saying, “Hello.” to each other.

Jesus talks about peace many other times in the gospels, before the resurrection. In John’s gospel, chapter 14, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

In chapter 16, still in John’s gospel, Jesus says, “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”

I’ve been privileged over the past four years to serve as your Bishop and have been invited into conversations, into planning and teaching in various settings of our life together as church.

From time to time, what I’ve experienced has little to do with peace in a “hey, how are you doing” kind of way.

And, more often than I will ever admit in public, these conversations have nothing to do with peace in the way our savior hopes we will live.

Now, that doesn’t mean that I’m always looking for kumbaya moments as the only way we are called to live.

This life we live as followers of Jesus is tough at times.

Conflict and disagreements happen.

Evil is still present in the world.

Remember, Satan believes in God too.

I am fully aware that you will probably not agree with everything I say or do as I try to faithfully serve as your Bishop. That’s okay. We are still all part of the one body of Christ.

And, as I openly express from time to time, I don’t always agree with everything that the ELCA says or does either. That’s okay. I’m so very grateful that there is room at the table for all of us in this church, regardless of whether we always agree with one another about everything. We are all part of the one body of Christ.

Here’s the thing though.

I do believe with everything that I am or ever will be as a child of God who has been called to serve as your bishop at this time in history. I do believe, that the peace of Christ – and our ability to share Christ’s peace with others – extends far beyond any conflict or disagreement you and I may ever have.

That’s proven to be true for more than 2,000 years.

I believe it will continue to be true until the very end of time, when the savior returns.

Sharing Christ’s peace with one another is not simply offering a friendly hello.

Sharing Christ’s peace with one another is an act of reconciliation. It is an opportunity for God’s children to be reconciled with one another. It is something that allows us to set aside human differences and to recognize and demonstrate our very identity as followers of Jesus the Christ the risen Savior of the world.

That is why Jesus’ words of peace still mean something today.

And, to be blunt, I think they are even more powerful for us to hear and receive when heard alongside Jesus’ statement to the disciples in verse 23. A statement Jesus first made to his disciples in the ancient first century world and is still making to his disciples in 2025.

Jesus says to us, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, thank you again for the invitation to be with you this morning – a morning of celebration and anticipation of future ministry together, and a morning of looking in new ways at what it means to live in the peace of Christ for people who claim to be followers of this Jesus.

As we live as God’s children on this side of the resurrection, the presence of the risen Jesus in our lives extends peace that is far more than a simple morning greeting.

The presence of the risen Jesus forgives all sin.

The presence of the risen Jesus brings restoration and healing to all relationships.

The presence of the risen Jesus is given to you and me in love, as a gift, that you and I receive each and every time we hear the words, “Peace be with you.”

       Amen.

I think this is scheduled for a bit later in our liturgy today but now seems like as good a time as any. I invite you to stand as you are comfortable. Let’s take a moment and share a sign of Christ’s peace with one another.

The peace of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you all. And also with you.

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May 24, 2025

John 13:31-35 • May 18, 2025 • Oak Valley Lutheran Church, Velva, ND

By Bishop Craig Schweitzer

Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and risen Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

First of all, thank you for welcoming me into your community today. One of the things I enjoy most while serving as your bishop is getting to join congregations in worship nearly every week of the year. I’ve been looking forward to this day for a few months. It is a great joy to be with you! I’m grateful for the journey we’ve been on together. I’m grateful for the elected leadership at Oak Valley, for your most amazing community of GIFTS leaders, and, really, grateful for what God is doing today and will continue to do into the future as your new relationship with Pr. Emmy begins to unfold. God is good.

Second, I bring greetings to you from your brothers and sisters of the WND Synod – nearly 160 congregations, serving in the western two-thirds of our great state;

I bring greetings from your brothers and sisters across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America– around 9,000 congregations serving together across the United States and the Caribbean;

and, I bring you greetings from your siblings in the Lutheran World Federation or LWF, of which our denomination of the ELCA is the only representative of from the United States.

LWF connects 149 Lutheran denominations, over 77 million children of God, serving together in 99 different countries who serve on every continent on Earth. This global communion of Lutheran churches who formed shortly after World War 2 as a way to help rebuild congregations, communities, and lives in the aftermath of the evil and horror that is war.

I know that many of you have heard those greetings from me many times before. I offer them every chance I get.

They are important for us to hear because they are just one of the ways that help us see just how important the ministry and mission that God is calling us into is. And, even though that ministry and mission might look and feel different in places outside of our local congregations, Jesus is still inviting his disciples – you and me – to have love for one another.

Which, we all know, can be a challenge for us from time to time.

An old story that I first heard from my pastoral care professor in seminary many years ago.

A teenager came home from youth choir practice at church early one evening. His dad asked, “Why are you home so soon?”

“We had to call off choir practice this week, dad. The piano player and choir director got into a terrible fight about how we should sing, ‘Let There be Peace on Earth,’ so we quit for the night.”

It was a long, long, time ago – and since I’m part of this story, I reserve the right to not share with you just how long ago it was, although we can count the number of years in decades now.

It was in a place far, far away – Wilton, ND.

Well, OK, maybe not that far away, but when you make a daily trek from Bismarck to Wilton in the depths of a North Dakota winter as a college student, it sure felt a lot further then than it does now.

I was in my final year of college, finishing a degree in music education.

This is the semester that I had worked toward and waited three and a half years to experience.

I…was finally a student teacher.

One of the highlights and great joys of my semester student teaching in Wilton was the fifth and sixth grade beginner band. I loved those kids. I loved how hard they worked. I loved how much fun they had playing together.

I loved how we walked through the ancient rituals of band practice, how we encouraged one another along the way, and how we tried to make sure that everyone who wanted to play in the band had the opportunity to play in the band.

The day finally came after weeks of hard work.

The spring concert.

The gym was packed as I walked to the front of the band, lifted my conductor’s baton, and hoped that someone, someone, anyone, even if it was just one person would remember what we had been working on, would remember something about the music that we had prepared for this concert.

That all the study and rituals we had experienced together in the band room somehow had become part of who they now were.

That somehow, they would magically follow the direction of my baton and play their instrument.

And that it would sound something like what a fifth and sixth grade band is supposed to sound like.

And you know what…they did.

And as I remember that night in the Wilton school gym, they sounded pretty darn good too.

Each week, you and I are given opportunities to walk together through ancient Christian rituals and traditions like worship. Outside of worship, we are given opportunities to live out our life in Christ through disciplines like prayer and Bible study, service in places like food pantries or giving of ourselves by breaking up a concrete driveway in ninety-degree heat.

These are sacred and holy events that form us and gather us together as a community of faith.

All of these things are reflections of Jesus’ command to the eleven disciples, and to you and me today, to love one another. But for Jesus, love is not simply a feeling that we have from time to time – like our love for chocolate or a large single-pump vanilla latte with an extra shot or that queasy kind of feeling we get when we first realize that we might be in love with someone romantically.

One Lutheran theologian that I’ve read often over the years believes that “We have cheapened love by using the word carelessly. We have confused the sentimentality of the Hallmark card with the deep, dark mystery of love that is manifested for us in the incarnate Christ. Yes, love can be warm, enfolding and sheltering. Yes, love can feel good. But,” she wrote, “love can also be strong and difficult. It can be an impossible challenge.” [Rev. Margaret Guenther, “No Exceptions Permitted,” article in The Christian Century, May 3, 1995]

So it’s important that we take time to look closely at the fine print in our gospel reading today. Jesus says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus wants these eleven disciples, the first community who follow Jesus, to have love for each other.

Throughout all four gospels, it’s pretty easy to see that this seems to be something the disciples really struggle with.

How are you and I doing with this? Love for each other?

If we take even a simple look at Christian history, love is not always the first thing that we are known for. And I’m not just talking about the crusades or the protestant reformation or even the recent history across many congregations in Christian churches across the United States.

How are you and I doing with this command from Jesus to have love for each other?

What happened in your life just a few minutes before you came to worship today or what happened on Tuesday afternoon last week. As followers of the risen savior Jesus Christ, our track record on the love that Jesus is commanding us to live out today isn’t always very good.

That’s why I hope you also heard Jesus saying to the disciples, and to you and me still today, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” “Just as I have loved you,” Jesus says.

Did you catch that?

Did you hear that good news from Jesus?

God doesn’t love us because we’ve got this love thing all figured out and are always perfect at living with the kind of love that Jesus is talking about today and models for us throughout the gospels.

The good news of Jesus Christ is that God loved us first.

And God continues to love you and me in spite of all the mistakes we make along the way.

And just like that fifth and sixth grade band who made beautiful music in a school gym many years ago, God will never give up on sending us into the world to share the beautiful music of God’s love with others.

I am so excited to get to witness the amazing ways that beautiful music will flow from the mission and ministry of Oak Valley Lutheran Church in Velva, North Dakota as you begin a new chapter in your history today with the installation of Pastor Emmy Swedland.

Thank you once again for the invitation to be with you today. And thank you for the many ways that God’s children experience the love of Christ throughout the world because of you.

Our worship together today will conclude in the same way that Christian worship has concluded for centuries. Your newly installed pastor will stand before the followers of the risen Jesus Christ at Oak Valley and offer a blessing. A blessing with ancient words that send us out with God’s love and a command from Jesus for us to share that love with others.

“Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” is what we will hear.

To which the children whom God loves will respond. “Thanks be to God.”

Sisters and brothers in Christ, let it be so.

Amen.

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